steve, Author at Steve Coomes

Comfy Cow moooving toward expansion through franchising

March 21, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

Owners of The Comfy Cow, a local, three-unit super-premium ice cream and desserts company, are working with a host of restaurant veterans to ready their business for franchised growth.

No less than Don Doyle (former president of KFC, CEO of Rally’s Hamburgers and former Qdoba franchisee in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee) and Chip Hamm, former director of franchise development for KFC, are advising Comfy Cow owners Tim and Roy Koons-McGee on the difficult and tedious task of drawing up its franchising documents.

(Hamm also is an investor with the Ton Brothers and Brett Davis in Doc Crow’s on Main Street and in La Coop, the French bistro in NuLu.)

According to Tim Koons-McGee, the effort is costing the business nearly $50,000, “but it’s going to be done right the first time with the help of people who know what they’re doing. We’ve heard horror stories of franchise agreements that were truly bad, so we want to bring that in house and tailor it specifically to our brand.”

Book review: ‘Beam, Straight Up,’ shares Noe family stories and tasty bourbon history

March 21, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

When I received a press copy of Fred Noe’s autobiography, “Beam, Straight Up,” I had no doubt the story of this seventh-generation Jim Beam master distiller would be a good one.

Noe is not only a born storyteller gifted with a memory for delicious details, he’s also generous to the cast of characters in those tales, and properly self-effacing when the story swings round to him. Unlike Fox News, Noe’s recollections come off as fair and balanced — helped immensely by their self-deprecating tone.

Simply growing up a Beam ensures one’s life would be adventurous and worth recording. It came with its privileges to be sure, but as Noe details, those honors demanded a price.

Growing up under the withering scrutiny but genuine friendliness of his legendary father, Fred “Booker” Noe, and the expectation that he’d someday assume the throne at Jim Beam was no mean feat. But Noe describes those struggles without bitterness or blame; rather he sees them as life lessons learned across many seasons — maybe too slowly at times, but taken to heart all the same.

St. Charles Exchange’s Patrick McCandless and Colin Shearn are confident as Beard House dinner nears

March 21, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

Patrick McCandless, executive chef at St. Charles Exchange, is amazingly calm discussing the details of his first James Beard House dinner on Feb. 27 in Manhattan.

Cooking on one of America’s grandest stages—though the truth is there is nothing grand at all about the wholly non-descript place—is an event that gives many chefs fits, leaves them biting their nails and claims precious sleep in the days leading up to the dinner.

Not McCandless.

Is the young lad simply naïve about the task before him? Isn’t the pressure of feeding a faction of New York’s culinary cognoscenti and some national magazine reporters bugging him?

And what about cooking in the Beard House’s notoriously cramped and gloomy kitchen? It’s a far cry from St. Charles’ modern, clean and well-lighted space.

“I used to get worried about stuff like that,” McCandless said, his face framed by a confident, but not cocky, grin. “But I’ve done so many offsite caterings in people’s homes where you don’t have much to use, and you adapt. I can almost guarantee I’ve pulled off a bigger dinner with less stuff.”

McCandless is prepping some of the food for the 60-person meal in Louisville, vacuum packing select ingredients, and then trusting it’ll arrive by air on time and in the right place by Feb. 26.

Chef Jean-Marc Larrue journeys from France to cook and teach at Lilly’s Feb. 21-26

February 12, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

It’s increasingly common that chefs cook in each other’s kitchens for special events, such as celebrity fundraisers. But that chef Jean-Marc Larrue will leave his Avignon, France, restaurant, Jardins de la Tour, to spend four February days cooking at Lilly’s—a Kentucky Bistro – now that’s remarkable.

Kathy Cary, chef-owner, Lilly’s: A Kentucky Bistro

His visit was cooked up between Lilly’s Kathy Cary and a college classmate who met Larrue during a culinary tour in France. Knowing Cary’s fondness for France and easy kinship with other chefs, the friend suggested bringing Laurre to the U.S. for a stop in Louisville. Cary loved the idea.

“We used to celebrate (Lilly’s) anniversary each year by doing a week of French foods, but now we’re bringing a famous French chef in instead,” Cary said. Larrue’s visit will include cooking classes as well as special prix fixe Provençal-style menus served in Lilly’s dining room. “I’ve never had a chef give cooking classes in my kitchen—ever!,” Cary said. “I’ve only had visiting chefs doing events in my kitchen.”

Better burger boom continues as Game and Sidebar at Whiskey Row open soon

February 12, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

UPDATED 9:30 p.m. The name of the Sidebar at Whiskey Row was reported incorrectly.

Save for apple pie, there’s hardly a more iconic statement of culinary Americana than the hamburger.

The Breakfast Burger at Mussel & Burger bar in Jeffersontown.

In the last century, home grillers made it good while McDonald’s made it generic and ubiquitous.

Now seemingly every place from high-end restaurants to food trucks are making it bigger, better, fancier and pricier.

Corbett’s all-beef version sells for $15, which is the same nickel you’ll pay for St. Charles Exchange’slamb burger. A few dollars less will let you eat a wide range of burgers at Mussel & Burger Bar, which opened in early February.

Want all grass-fed versions? Get ‘em for about $10 when The Grind Gourmet Burger Food Truck is rolling or spend around $7 at Bluegrass Burgers.

If that sounds like a lot of options, know that two more “gourmet burger” places are opening soon. On Feb. 12, the chef-owners of Hammerheads will open Game, a high-end hamburger joint at 2295 Lexington Road. (Despite having no menu on its Facebook page, Game already has 697 Likes, which says a lot about how much people love Hammerheads.)

Q4 Yum! Brands report: China chicken scare threatens 2013 earnings

February 12, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

In a country where a good air quality day in any industrial city makes a Los Angeles smog alert day look clear by comparison; where food safety outside of said cities is questionable at best; and where people are imprisoned for speaking their minds, there exists a populous bent out of shape about antibiotic-stuffed chickens?

Indeed there is, and its complaint about fast-growth chicken served at KFC units threatens to stall the fast-food juggernaut’s expansion for Yum! China and flatten earnings for Yum! Brands in 2013.

Late last year, an inspection by Chinese officials of Yum! China’s chicken production practices revealed its birds were given hormone boosts that brought them from birth to broiler weight in just 45 days. (Sarcasm alert: Given that the life cycle of factory farm produced chickens here is 49 days, what’s the gripe, right?)

For most, waiting tables is temporary work, not a career

February 12, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

There’s been a lot of anger vented in social media following server Leila DiFazio’s dismissal from Lynn’s Paradise Café. Some of it’s righteous, some it’s naïve.

Fair gripe #1: Lynn’s servers shouldn’t have been demanded to liquefy its support staff tip pool by carrying $100 cash to work. The business serves as the bank, especially when it’s a restaurant that, according to owner Lynn Winter, hauled in $4 million per year ($76,923 per week). I don’t care how many guests pay with credit cards, such a business should have a few grand extra in house to see that its tipped employees get their share.

Fair gripe #2: According to Kentucky law, DiFazio should not have been fired since a restaurateur cannot mandate anyone participate in a tip pool in the first place.

Beer ye, beer ye, NABC and Varanese pairing up for unique dinner for Feb. 7

February 12, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

When contemplating the menu for an upcoming beer dinner at Varanese, chef-owner John Varanese took an unconventional approach by tasting the beer first and then crafting a menu around it.

And while that approach would make Homer Simpson proud, he said it just made the most sense.

John Varanese, chef and owner of Varanese.

“Beer’s food friendly anyway, so I knew that was a good place to start,” Varanese said.

New Albanian Brewing Co. co-owner, Roger Baylor, came to the restaurant packing bottles and some handy food suggestions. Once the sipping began, the ideas flowed easily between them.

He was especially fond of NABC’s Solidarity, a Baltic porter “which had really good sweetness and fruit tones, I knew we could do a lot with that,” said Varanese, who received the Kentucky Restaurant Association’s Restaurateur of the Year Award last week. “We’re doing another dish with barley in it to go with (NABC’s) Hoptimus. It was fun coming up with those dishes.”

Manly meals: Big brews, beef and bloody Marys for brunch at Bank Street Brewhouse

February 7, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

Beef, beer and “bloodies.”

Now that’s a manly way to start off your Super Bowl Sunday.

If such a lineup interests you, then cross the Sherman-Minton for that and more during brunch atBank Street Brewhouse (415 Bank Street, New Albany). It starts at 10 a.m. and runs until 2 p.m. Bank-Street-beer-for-Roger-

If, like me, you lean toward savory, single plate selections (never been a piled-high pancake and whipped cream waffle fan), this is a good option. No syrupy-sweet selections on the limited but diverse menu that includes BSB’s fantastic croque madame (which shares my pick for the best hot sandwich around with the Brown Hotel’s hot brown), Kentucky eggs Benedict, chorizo hash, pork tacos and burgers.

3rd time the charm? Quattro opens Friday on 4th Street Live in former Mozzaria site

February 7, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

As the old saying goes, perhaps the third time is the charm for the so-far luckless restaurant spot at 450 S. Fourth Street. Quattro-exterior

Red Star Tavern, its first tenant, operated there for a few years before closing in late 2011.

Then came Mozzaria, an Italian concept that nearly self-imploded under the major misguidance of founding chef, Matthew Antonovich. Pallas Partners, the largest stakeholders in Mozzaria, parted ways with Antonovich last August and set about rescuing the troubled business.

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